Stakeholders are individuals or companies with a vested interest in the outcome of their specific projects. Stakeholder project management began in England during the 1960s, according to the Project Management Institute. Stakeholders have legal decision-making rights and may control project scheduling and budgetary issues. Most project stakeholders have responsibilities to businesses that include educating developers, financing projects, creating scheduling parameters and setting milestone dates.

Overview

Project management stakeholders may have financially invested in the projects they oversee or may have non-monetary interests in the outcome of their projects. Project stakeholders may work with private companies or work on government contracts and projects. On specific government projects, project stakeholders may own the equipment and supplies but lease them to government agencies. Stakeholders also have ethical obligations to the companies they manage, including the responsibility to report exceeding their budgets and reporting scheduling oversights or failure to meet milestone dates.

Project Teams

Team leaders and project managers are examples of project stakeholders. Team leaders and project managers may consist of company staff members or outside consultants specifically hired to oversee larger project issues. They may hire other professionals to oversee the smaller project issues and require their consultants to report to them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Private Stakeholders

Stakeholders can also include private citizens with collective interests in ensuring that individual projects are developed according to their needs. For example, private neighborhoods that enter into contracts with builders to construct recreational facilities for their neighborhoods would have stakeholder duties and responsibilities to ensure developers or contractors stay within their budgets and scheduling deadlines. Private residents in these neighborhoods would also have financial and personal interests in ensuring their projects produce their desired results. They may engage in discussions, vote upon proposals and budgetary line items and may have the right to approve or reject design details.

Oversight Responsibilities

Stakeholders are responsible for reviewing deliverable project items. Project deliverables can include architectural diagrams, blueprints and construction drawings. With the assistance of engineers, architects and contractors, project stakeholders are responsible for approving these items. Stakeholders who work on business projects may have specific project duties, depending on the types of projects they fund. For instance, stakeholders in private software companies may fund software projects and become responsible for the final outcome.